Rowan Legal
  • harnach@rowan.legal

Jiří is a specialist in procedural public procurement law and public investment law. Within the firm, he is the main guarantor of procedural advice to both contracting authorities and bidders for public contracts, in all steps following the decision of the contracting authority, in representation in administrative proceedings before the Office of Public Procurement and before administrative courts.

Jiří has almost 20 years of experience in public procurement law and providing legal support in defending the interests of contracting authorities and bidders in the public procurement process, in many major projects (ICT, water, waste management, construction, etc.), the value of which has reached billions of CZK. He provides partial legal opinions on key issues in the field of public procurement and concessions and has experience in drafting tender conditions and bids.

Jiří publishes in public procurement law journals, speaks at professional conferences, webinars, etc., and is co-author of the 2016 Commentary on the Public Procurement Act.

His other areas of legal specialization include general administrative law, freedom of access to information and legislative process.

Legal representation and comprehensive legal support of the Prague City Transport Company in the implementation of the first section of the Pankrác-Olbrachtova D metro line. The project involved procurement for construction works and geomonitoring and passporting, with a total value of approximately CZK 25 billion. The legal support included representation in proceedings before the Office of the Public Prosecutor and before administrative courts.

Legal representation and comprehensive legal support to the City of Prague in setting up a new plan for the provision of public lighting management in the City of Prague through so-called “in-house” cooperation, including representation in administrative and court proceedings with the previous provider of these services, a company from the ELTODO Group. The value of the dispute was approx. CZK, excluding VAT.

Conducting procurement procedures for the Prague City Transport Company for partial preparatory works for the construction of the D metro line and actual construction of the D metro line.

Legal representation of Skytoll CZ on the extension of the contract for the operation of electronic toll collection in 2016.

Provided comprehensive legal services to the contracting authority Czech Republic – Ministry of Agriculture in connection with the successful award of the public contract named “Operation and development of eAGRI and related application infrastructure” with a value of nearly CZK 300 million.

Provided comprehensive legal services to the contracting authority Municipal District of Prague 8 in connection with the award of the public contract named “Centrum Palmovka – Construction of a building with office and commercial premises and their subsequent management with the provision of related services”, awarded in a competitive dialogue and with a value exceeding CZK 1 billion, excluding VAT. Coordinated the subsequent procedural defense before the Office for the Protection of Competition.

Provided comprehensive legal advice to the Czech Republic – the Ministry of Agriculture as the plaintiff, in court proceedings brought by the Supreme Administrative Court (5 Afs 42/2012 and 5 Afs 43/2012), against the Office for the Protection of Competition, in which this court issued groundbreaking judgments regarding the possibility of using the negotiated procedure without publication, which was also granted to the Ministry in full.

Provided comprehensive legal services to the contracting authority, Vysoká škola báňská – Technická univerzita Ostrava, relating to the successful award of the public contract named “Supercomputer – Large Cluster” in the form of a competitive dialogue (with foreign bidders and partly in English) with a value of almost CZK 300 million. As part of this legal service, he participated in the drafting of the complex terms of reference containing a binding model contract, which contracted the implementation of the IT4Innovations Centre of Excellence project financed by the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation and the implementation of the unique supercomputer center in the Czech Republic, as well as in the complex administration. The subject was the acquisition of a complex technical research infrastructure in the field of “supercomputing”.

As one of the leading members of the team, he participated in winning the Law Firm of the Year CZ award for ROWAN LEGAL – winner of the Public Procurement category in 2013 and 2017 and 2022.

Education

School: Faculty of Law, Masaryk University in Brno, 2000
Field of study: Law and legal science

Professional experience

Company: ROWAN LEGAL, law firm

Position:      

  • Counsel (07/2021–present)
  • Managing Associate (04/2020–06/2021)
  • Senior Associate (01/2016–03/2020)
  • Junior Lawyer (10/2011–12/2015)

Company: Office for the Protection of Competition (04/2001–09/2011)

Position:

  • Secretary of the Appeals Commission of the President of the Office of Public Procurement
  • Director of the Legislative and Legal Department of the Public Procurement Office
  • Member of the Appeals Committee of the Chairman of the Office of the Public Procurement Commissioner